Slayer: Episode One: Adjustments
by Gary Boshears
Summary: AU - New series starring Faith! Episode One: Adjustments - Faith and the gang are adjusting to their lives without Buffy & Willow when a group of demon assassins targets them and a dark evil awaits. Please Review. Complete! EP2 now online!
1. Overture

SLAYER   
EPISODE ONE: ADJUSTMENTS   
STARRING:  
Eliza Dushku as Faith   
James Marsters as Spike   
Iyari Limon as Kennedy   
Shane West as Robert   
And  
Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn   
GUEST STARRING:   
Nicholas Brendon as Xander   
D. B. Woodside as Principal Wood   
Tom Lenk as Andrew   
And Hugo Weaving as Coreedon   
SPECIAL APPEARANCE BY:   
David Boreanaz as Angel   
WRITTEN BY: Gary Boshears   
This is the first part in a multi-episode, virtual spin-off to Buffy the Vampire Slayer with 22 total episodes planned.  Anyone other fan-fic authors interested in helping to write the series, please send an e-mail to: slayer@easdarkthunder.com as people are needed to both write some episodes and help designing and outlining the story as a whole.   
OVERTURE   
            "Take care of her Faith," Buffy's words, from only three months prior echoed in her memory.  Buffy, always the stronger of the two Slayers, realized then what she had to do.  Putting her hand on Dawn's shoulder and looking Faith in the eye, she was stronger than the other Slayer could ever hope to be.  "I have to go and you have to promise me something.  Promise me you'll take care of Dawn, you'll take care of everybody.  They'll need you Faith."   
            Buffy, turned away from her sister while the tears built in her eyes and hugged Faith, the two Slayers peacefully embracing.  "It's up to you now," Buffy whispered in her ear.  Faith, a master of doing so, could barely restrain her emotions as the two separated, Buffy stepped into a car and drove away into the setting sunset, her last words echoing in the Slayer's mind.  She had never been one to readily accept responsibility in the past.  On the contrary, Faith was much more apt to shy away from it but that was no longer a luxury she had.  
            Faith trolled over the situation in her mind.  With the defeat of the First, Buffy changed, suddenly, drastically.  Even though the Hellmouth was closed and the First gone, Buffy realized there was still evil in the world and that their war had been a defensive battle for long enough.  Not wasting any time, she and Willow, always by her side, had taken off, for parts unknown, taking the fight to the enemy.  Doing her part, Faith had agreed to stay in Sunnydale, both Slayers recognizing that evil would always be drawn to this place.   
            "Something wrong?"  Dawn's innocent voice brought Faith back to the present from her thoughts of the past.   
            Faith glanced at Dawn, seeing so much of Buffy inside of her.  "Nothing," she quickly dismissed the question, furthering the younger Summers' belief that Faith's mind was not entirely on the task at hand.  Not that it was entirely needed, after two hours of patrolling local cemeteries they had not encountered a single vampire, demon or miscellaneous creature of hell.  Not that it wasn't expected, the past three months had seen a drastic reduction in the amount of demon activity, leaving Faith feeling somewhat bored and almost out of place.   
            "You sure?"  Dawn gently pressed for more information.  One thing she had learned with Faith was not to press too strong when trying to get her to share feeling.   
            "I guess … I don't know," Faith hesitated.  She sighed.  The two women continued walking through the cemetery in silence for several minutes, Dawn beginning to think she wasn't going to get anymore from Faith than the open-ended answer.  "Just don't feel like I'm doing much good here.  Buffy and Willow are out scouring the globe for demons and I'm here …" Faith searched for the words.    
           "… Watching over things, hanging around good old Sunnydale and starting to think for some reason Buffy didn't want you to go with her?"  Dawn finished her sentence with a question, expressing some of her own feelings.   
            "Yeah," Faith admitted, looking Dawn in the eyes.  She hadn't realized it until Dawn expressed it but part of her did feel as though she was being left behind.  In some ways, she always felt a step or two behind Buffy.       
        "Sucks doesn't it?"   
            "Speaking of sucking," Faith extended the broadsword she carried in her right hand and pointed to two figures in the shadows in front of them.  They oafishly meandered through the cemetery with no great organization or style, a clear sign of freshly risen vampires, struggling to understand their new place in the underworld.   
            Dawn slowly reached for the stake concealed under her blue jacket.  Her reflexes kicked in when Faith tossed the sword to her, Dawn hesitantly grasping it with both hands and giving Faith a confused look.  Though the two had patrolled together in the past, Faith had usually done the work, leaving Dawn to "study her techniques", not something the younger Summers necessarily had a problem with.   
            "Go for it," Faith said, leaning back against a nearby tree and crossing her arms over her chest.  The vampires had now taken notice of the two girls and, obviously believing them to be helpless prey, were slowly advancing towards them.  
            "Umm … wait, uh," Dawn's nervous reaction was exactly what Faith had anticipated but she needed this.  "You're the Slayer, I'm just the uh … spectator."  
            "Buffy made me promise that I would take care of you Dawn," Faith quickly countered, confusing Dawn even further.   
            "And your definition of taking care of the one without superpowers is to throw her into mortal combat against two vampires?"  Dawn protested feverishly before shooting Faith an accusatory glance.  "You haven't turned evil again have you?"   
            Faith chuckled and allowed herself a slight grin.  Ignoring the fact that up until a mysterious pardon certificate arrived at her door she had been a fugitive from justice for escaping from prison, she took Dawn's comment as a light-hearted attempt to make the situation seem less serious than it was.  "No."  She answered simply.  "But I also promised Buffy I'd keep training you.  Even though you're not in line to be the next Slayer, the good fight can always use one more fighter."  The vampires continued to close, one licking his lips as they zeroed in on the two.  "So go for it," Faith again ordered with a nod in the direction of the approaching vampires.   
            As Dawn looked at them and back at her, Faith still saw hesitation in the young woman's eyes.  "Don't worry," Faith added, placing a reassuring hand on Dawn's shoulder.  "I'm right here if it turns into more than you can handle."    
           Still hesitant but comforted in knowing Faith was there, Dawn brought the sword to a ready position and slowly advanced towards the vampires.  Seeing the young woman approach, not running, not screaming for her life, but seemingly ready to do battle, the vampires acted accordingly.  They began to circle her in opposite directions, Dawn straining to watch both.  They snapped and growled as they circled, trying successfully to intimidate her.   
            Dawn did not give in to the fear inside however.  Taking advantage of the vampire's scare tactics, Dawn swung the sword at one, barely missing as the creature jumped out of the way.  Dawn charged towards it, swinging the sword several more times, the creature dodging each attempt she made.  Making the critical mistake of leaving her back unguarded, she continued her attack on the vampire.    
           The second vampire leaped into a kick, striking Dawn in the back and sending her to the ground, sword sliding across the ground as she lost her grip on it.  Struggling to regain her footing, Dawn felt the weight of one of the vampires on top of her.  It flipped her around so she could see his demonic face and fangs moving towards her neck.  She struggled but the creature was too strong.   
            Faith broke into a sprint, drawing the stake she had concealed in her red leather jacket but her stride was halted when two gunshots rang out from the blackness.  Obviously struck by the bullet, the vampire fell off Dawn, his companion blown back into a tree.  From the shadows where the shots originated, a figure clad in a black trench coat emerged, a sword hanging from his side as he charged towards the vampires.  She was now curious and could not help but watch.   
            The figure, paying no attention to Dawn who still lay on the ground, closed on the disoriented vampire who had attacked her.  A stake slid out from his sleeve, a weapon adaptation Faith had seen before.  He landed a single punch on the creatures face before driving the stake into its chest; the once strong demon possessed being turning into a pile of gray dust.  He then turned towards the remaining vampire who had regained its footing and assumed an offensive stance.   
            Instincts overwhelming it, the vampire jumped into a spinning kick, the black clad figure ducking out of the way and drawing the sword.  Maintaining a defensive stance, the figure effortlessly dodged a series of kicks and punches with such skill and relative ease that Faith had only seen Buffy and herself manage.  As the vampire charged towards the figure, madly swinging its fists, he took advantage of the lowered defense, swinging the sword a single time, severing the creature's head and replacing the sword in its sheath with a single motion.   
            With the mysterious rescuer looking away from her, Dawn tried to scramble to her feet and get back to Faith without being noticed.  Though the figure did save her life, she did not know what other sort of intentions it might have.  Her attempt to get away however was not successful.  Hearing the grass and leave crunch beneath her face, the figure spun around, training a black pistol on her, slowing walking towards her.   
            "Who are you?"  He demanded, his voice not sounding particularly demonic or evil.  "What are you doing here?"   
            Seeing that he was now paying complete attention to Dawn, Faith acted quickly.  "She's with me," Faith answered, springing into a kick, knocking the gun away from the man.  Landing, she quickly reached into her coat, drawing a dagger and pressing it against the man's neck but not before he had pulled another gun from his coat, aiming it at her head.   
            In the first seconds of the standoff, both looked into the other's eyes, realizing that they were in fact not enemies.  "Robert," Faith realized who the man in front of her was, opening up a hundred more questions she could ask.  
            "Good to see you again Faith." 


	2. Act One

ACT ONE 

The _Drunken Fisherman_ was an establishment very true to its name.  Located on Sunnydale's dilapidated wharf, the bar served as a watering hole and place to pass out for every fisherman whose haul for the day was not what they had wanted and even more so for those whose haul was more than they could have hoped for.  Tonight, the usual cliental had filtered in at the usual time but with one notable exception.  Though he had been seen here the past few nights, the tall, slender man with bleached blonde hair, dressed almost entirely in black still seemed out of place.  He had wandered at the same time everyday this week, later than most, sitting at the bar, sipping beer after beer, keeping to himself.

            Tonight however, Spike did not seem to be in much of a mood for keeping to himself.  After downing several beers, several shots of hard liquor and several more beers, it seemed as though the vampire's tongue had been loosened.  Most ignored his apparent ramblings though those that had consumed more alcohol than he had gathered around him, listening to his stories with interest.

            "So I see her sitting there," Spike continued after downing the remainder of his beer, raising his voice to add emphasis and make sure his growing crowd of listeners could hear him.  "On the park bench, making out with a chaos demon!"  Spike made a series of disoriented gestures with his hands as he told the story he had once thought he would never have interest in repeating.  This was met be a series of low rumblings, groans and drunken expressions of sympathy from those gathered around him.

            "That's rough pal," the stench of alcohol rolled off the breath of the fat, bearded sailor behind Spike as he spoke, putting his hand on the vampire's shoulder.

            Spike patted the man's hand repeatedly, underestimating the strength of his touch, the man quickly pulling his hand away.  "Thanks pal, it means a lot," Spike remarked without an ounce of sincerity.  Spike took another long slug of his freshly refilled beer glass before continuing, waving his finger about, pointing to his audience.  "But let me tell ya, Dru was a bloody saint, well," Spike realized the inherent error of his comment.  "You know, aside from the whole being evil thing."  Another round of drunken agreements from the listeners filled the room.  "But she was perfection compared to the next girl."  As the vampire polished off another beer and slammed his fist on the bar, a signal for a refill, his audience urged him to continue.

            "Cute little blonde thing right," Spike began, drawing various comments from the drunken sailors gathered around him.  "And I'll admit, we got off a bit on the wrong foot, you know, me trying to kill her a few times and all but you'd think a person could forgive that after a while."

            "Yeah!"  Another heavyset sailor shouted.

            "See he knows what I'm talking about," Spike acknowledged the sailor by raising his glass, prompting the other listeners to do so as well.  "So long story short, I end up falling in love with the girl, devil knows how that happened.  Then for a while, you know, we're getting along well, having our little midnight get-togethers and such but then, you know I've got to go and mess it all up again, she tells me she could never love me.  But then, I go through hell and torture and torturous hell to get her the one thing she wants and she still doesn't give us a chance."

            With a single gulp, Spike downed another beer, wiping the remnants off of his lip with his hand before demanding another and continuing his story.  "Well, big old battle and lots of special effects later, she finally admits, that she might, kind of, love me too.  So big happy ending right?"  The audience participated as he thought they would, nodding and agreeing that it seemed the perfect place for his story to end.

            "Wrong," Spike delivered the blow.  "Then she tells me she's taking off with her little witch friend to battle the forces of darkness across the globe.  Now, I'm never one to turn away from a fight, so I'm saddled up ready to go with her and you know what she tells me?"  No answers came; Spike swallowed another beer.  "She tells me that I have to stay in good.  Old.  Sunnydale."  Moans and groans of disappointment from his audience as Spike downed yet another beer.  "That was three months ago," Spike added.  "Haven't heard from the bitch since and it's a good thing to!  Cause if she ever visits my grave again I'm going to give her piece of my mind I'll tell you that!"  As Spike downed another beer, he did not notice that his crowd had disappeared and been replaced by three large, less inebriated men, employees and the owner of the bar by the looks of them.

            "While you're thinking about what pieces of your mind to give her, why don't you fork over some pieces of money for all those drinks you've been downing?"  The largest one, wearing a cut off t-shirt and dirty blue jeans, standing in the center, asked, growing obviously weary of the hefty tab Spike had built up over the past week.

            "Well you know," Spike commented, pretending to dig through is pockets for money but actually scanning the bar for the fastest and most easily accessible exit.  "'Fraid I'm running a little short in the hard currency area lately."  Spike stood, realizing he was several inches shorter than the smallest man.  "Think we could work out some sort of a trade?"  The owner smiled.

            From a side door of the _Drunken Fisherman_, leading into a dark alley, Spike flew, crashing dangerously into a pile of discarded wood boxes.   He had decided it would be in his best interests to not offer any resistance to the humans tossing him out of the bar, for if he would have, the Slayer would be on his back within hours.  "And stay out!"  The owner slammed the door behind him.

            Spike stood, dusting off his jacket, thanking whatever power it was that watched over him for none of the wooden shards getting too close.  "Fine!"  Spike retorted, pretending to care more about the situation than he actually did.  "Don't need your soddin' boos anyways."  Noticing a discarded, half-empty bottle of beer on the ground by his feet, Spike picked it up, chugging the contents down and throwing the bottle into the shadows, towards a brick wall of the building opposite the bar.

            The bottle did not shatter however.  Spike, doubting his own strength, knowing he'd thrown the bottle hard, became determined to break it.  He had to take out his frustrations on something and it was the most convenient thing that breaking wouldn't result in the Slayer breathing down his neck, unless she had gotten bored lately.  As he approached where the bottle struck the wall, he saw the reason why.

            It had struck a body, propped up against the wall.  It wasn't the ordinary, run of the mill dead body though; somebody had fun with this one.  Examining it, Spike had a brief memory of Spain.  Fresh from enjoying the theatre and a meal, coincidentally at the same place, he and Dru were walking through the streets when a young boy had made some suggestive comments towards her.  Spike used to be the jealous type.

            "Dru would've loved this," Spike noted, remembering when he had presented the boy's body to her.  "Buffy would've blamed me, being the one here."  Spike looked the body over.  On first inspection, it looked as though it was ripped apart from the inside, a difficult task to accomplish for most.  "And Faith, she'll probably both love it and blame me."  Though she did not seem to be hostile towards him, Spike still wasn't sure about Sunnydale's newest resident Slayer hence why he had kept a safe distance from her during the past three months.

            With the arrival of whatever had killed this young sailor in town though, it seemed he would have to end his isolation from the Slayer.  Whatever or whoever this killer was, they would need to be dealt with and Spike's taste for dealing with creatures of the underworld had disappeared as of late.  This was a job for the Slayer to take care of and for Spike to hope she didn't get herself killed in the process.

            Seeing his discarded bottle laying on top of the body, Spike picked it up, shattered it against the nearby wall and walked out of the alley, a freshly lit cigarette burning in his mouth.  Wherever the Slayer was, he had to find her.

*******

"And where should I put my scale diorama of the first battle of the Battle of Endor?"  Andrew all but stumbled through the door of Xander's apartment, carrying a large covered piece of wood, no doubt the model he was speaking of.

            Xander, sitting on the couch, feet propped up on the coffee table as he surfed through television channels shook his head, having difficulty believing what his life had become.  "Please tell me I didn't just hear that sentence?"  He did not look away from the TV as Andrew finally managed to negotiate the doorway, setting the model on top of the counter.

            "Seriously Xander, I think it would look good as a centerpiece in the living room, you know, something to draw conversation when we're entertaining," Andrew seriously remarked, hanging over the couch.

            Annoyed to no end with the situation, Xander turned the TV off and stood, turning around and towering over the geek that stood behind his couch.  "Two things," Xander began, pointing a finger at him for emphasis.  "First, we will not be entertaining anybody.  I don't want anyone to know I actually let you move in, let alone anyone to think I'm trying to make the best of it.  Second," he continued, pointing to Andrew's diorama.  "I think it will go very well in the closet with your Captain Picard statue and your Stargate plates and your complete set of Babylon 5 laser discs."  

Andrew retreated, picking up the diorama and carrying it towards the closet.  "All right, I can see there's going to have to be a period of adjustment for both of us and I can understand that."

Xander again shook his head and turned the TV back on.  "This is what my life has become."  The door to his apartment closed, Andrew going back out to his car, no doubt to bring in more signs of geekdom that Xander would have to quickly order into the closet as well.  "Should've gone with Will and Buffy," he muttered, pretending for a moment that the two would actually have let him go with them on their quest to rid the globe of evil.

"No Xander, it's too dangerous," he repeated the words Buffy told him in his best mocking impression of her voice while making odd movements with his head, further illustrating his dislike of the whole situation.  His two best friends were gone, Anya was dead and the Buffy's younger, less sane equivalent had taken over the slaying operations in Sunnydale.  Worst of all though, he had agreed when Dawn suggested Andrew move in with him when the Scooby gang's resident geek was looking for a place to stay.

"It must have been a spell," Xander concluded as he settled on watching an old movie, one of those sappy black and white romance films where everybody ends up happy, the guy meets the girl of his dreams, marries her and no one and doesn't have any problems for the rest of their lives.  It was a stark contrast to his own.  "That's how they talked me into this," the door opened again, he turned to see what Andrew was trying to bring in now.  "It must have been a spell."

"I know, I know," Andrew was already speaking when he entered the door, carrying a large cardboard standup of a person.  "I'll put my life size Princess Leia standup in the closet too."  Xander popped to his feet, staring intently at the cardboard replication of the famous character in a gold bikini, remembering old boyhood fantasies.

"You know what Andrew," he walked towards the door, grabbing the standup away from his new roommate.  "There's no sense in putting all your stuff in the closet, I mean, this is your place to now."  A smile appeared on the nerd's face.  "In fact, I think Leia here might be more comfortable in my room."

"Great!"  Andrew agreed.  "And I was thinking my Captain Archer curtains would look great –" Andrew began to point to a window when Xander cut him off.

"In the closet," Xander reiterated before vanishing to his room, the Princess Leia standup tucked under his arm.

As Xander's door slammed, Andrew sighed.  "I should've gone with Buffy and Willow."

*******

            "Wait a second!"  Dawn protested, running up to Faith as she sheathed her dagger and Robert replaced his pistol in the holster underneath his arm.  "You two know each other?"  She asked, glancing first at Faith, then back at Robert and finally back at Faith.  After having a gun aimed at her, the last thing Dawn wanted to see was Faith, who was supposed to be looking out for her, catching up on old times with the person who was holding said gun.

            "Long story," both answered in unison.  Robert backed away from the Slayer and Dawn, retrieving his other pistol from the ground and replacing it in the holster beneath his arm, concealed by his trench coat.

            Staring at him for a moment, realizing he was staring at her, Faith decided something needed to be said to break the awkward silence that had fallen over the three individuals.  "Umm … right, introductions, that might help."  It did not occur to Faith exactly how forced her comment sounded.  "Robert Bloodworth, Dawn Summers."  Robert extended his hand, Dawn hesitantly shaking it.  "Robert worked at the prison where I was on vacation for a few years."  Faith then remembered the circumstances surrounding the last time they had seen each other, close to a year ago.

            "And now you kill vampires," Dawn observed, presenting a question Faith was considering asking herself.  "Interesting career move."

            "Yeah, well, you might say I had a little experience with it in the past.  Guess I got hooked on it," Robert shot Faith a knowing glance, a clear indication that there was a story, probably a long one, behind that comment.

            "You took out those two vamps like they were nothing," Faith added.  Vampires, for the most part, were easy for her but she had never seen a normal person dust one so easily, let alone two.

            Robert shrugged.  "A lot of practice since the last time I saw you Faith."  She looked into his eyes.  Faith could tell when he was hiding something from her but decided not to press the issue.

            "Well, good thing you were here I guess," was Dawn's way of thanking Robert for the timely intervention on her behalf.

            "We had it under control," Faith quickly retorted.  She did not want to make Robert's rescue of Dawn seem as needed as it was, not admitting that she might not have gotten there in time to save her.  "Didn't we Dawn?"  Faith looked to her for support, finding none in her unsteady eyes and silent voice.

            "Yeah, it sure looked like it."

            "So what're you doing in Sunnydale Robert?"  Faith asked, eager to change the topic.  The last thing she wanted was Robert of all people attacking her skills as a Slayer or her skills at keeping her promise to take care of Buffy's sister.

            "Well aside from coming to the timely rescue of Dawn," Robert said sarcastically, a deliberate and successful attempt to push Faith's buttons.  "I was actually looking for you."

            "Why?"  Faith asked, rather rudely.  Though she could think of a million reasons Robert might seek her out, none of them seemed to fit the situation at hand.

            "I have my reasons," Robert said with a wry grin on his face.  For once, he was the one with the secrets and he knew how not knowing drove Faith crazy, especially when she was used to being the one holding all of the cards.  With a gesture from Robert, Dawn and Faith followed him on the path out of the cemetery.  "Why don't we all go get a cup of coffee and," he turned his head, gazing into Faith's eyes, remembering in an instant how beautiful he always thought they were.  "We can catch up."

            "Sounds great," Dawn enthusiastically chimed in.

            Faith gave her a knowing gaze.  "You have your first day of school tomorrow."

            "Like you never skipped a day of school?"  Though Faith never shared any particular stories with Dawn, she doubted the Slayer had the model attendance record during her days as a schoolgirl.

            "And look how she turned out," Robert beat Faith to the punch, giving the Slayer another grin, knowing his confident and sarcastic demeanor was getting under her skin.

            "Hmm … good point," Dawn admitted.

            "All right," Faith was now increasingly frustrated with the combined attacks of Dawn and Robert.  "Did anyone tell you two that pissing off the Slayer is not a good idea?"

            "Oh, but you're reformed now remember?"  Robert landed another blow.

            "Lucky for you."  Faith quickly replied with a smile in the direction of both Dawn and Robert.  "Both of you," she clarified.

            "Well uh, how about that cup of coffee?"  Dawn broke the three seconds of silence following Faith's lighthearted threat.

            "You are going home and going to bed so you can get up and enjoy your first day of high school and so you're not half asleep due to not sleeping from a coffee high while you're trying to help Kennedy get adjusted."  Faith's statement to Dawn left no room for argument.  Seeing the disappointed look on Dawn's face, Faith realized that simply giving orders and stating facts sometimes wasn't the best way to handle things.  "We'll walk you home."

            "I can manage," Dawn shrugged.

            "You sure?"  Robert was the first to ask.  "Where there's two vamps there might be more.  Usually is."

            "Yeah, seeing their friends get dusted doesn't tend to do much to discourage them."  Faith added, feeling as though she needed to contribute some concern, Dawn being her responsibility after all.

            "I'll be fine," Dawn reassured her.  "It's not far from here anyways."

            "Be careful," Faith got the final word as Dawn walked down the road in the opposite direction from her and Robert.  Leaving the cemetery and strolling in the direction of the Espresso Pump, neither Faith nor Robert seemed very eager to talk.

            "It's good to see you Faith," Robert turned his eyes away from the road ahead and looked at the young woman by his side.  Faith did not return the look, merely kept her eyes on the road ahead.

            "Yeah," she agreed.  "It's been a while."  Following another moment of silence, she continued.  "So what happened after you left the prison?  I asked a few of the other guards and no one seemed to know, it was like you just disappeared."

            "That's not concern I hear in your voice is it?"

            "Curiosity," Faith corrected him.

            "After that little incident a year ago," Robert began to summarize an entirely too long story to tell at the moment.  He gave Faith a hard look.  "Took off on what you might call a little voyage of self-discovery.  Ended up in Texas, London, Hong Kong, Tibet, New York, Brazil, and half a dozen other less pleasant places until I finally got back to L.A.  When I went to the prison to find you, they told me you had escaped.  I tracked down your friend Angel and he told me what happened."

            "Well it seems like you pretty much know the story of my life for the past year, all I know about you is that you visited a bunch of places on some finding yourself trip."  Faith remarked before pointing a turn they needed to make.  "I guess that's only fitting though."

            "Considering I hardly ever knew anything about you, yeah, I say that makes us even."  Robert looked at Faith's newly resigned expression, knowing he struck a nerve he shouldn't have.  "I went through a lot Faith, a lot to get me here.  I'll tell you about it someday, when I'm ready to."

            "Hey, whatever," Faith remarked nonchalantly.

            "You all right?"  Robert looked at her, wondering what it was he said wrong.

            "Hey, I'm five by five," she quickly answered, some spark returning to her face.  "It's just weird seeing you again.  Especially seeing you as a vampire ass kicker."  Faith enthusiastically noted his dusting of the two vamps several minutes earlier.  Regardless of his reasons for coming, if he wanted to stick around, it could be good to have him.  "Where'd you learn to fight vamps like that anyways?"  She reached what she was really curious about.

            "Different part of the long story," he answered grimly.

            Faith opened her mouth to press for more information when she spotted a figure walking down the street and realized that ripping secrets away from Robert would have to wait.  Spike approached the two of them with a purpose, barely acknowledging Robert as he approached Faith.  "Speaking of vampires," she whispered before Spike was close enough to hear.

            Though he had heard of Spike and knew he was closer to the friend column rather than the enemy, there was something about vampires, any vampires that he did not trust.  His hand rested over his sword underneath is trench coat.

            "Slayer," Spike stopped an arm's length in front of her and Robert.

            "Spike," Faith acknowledged, locking eyes with the vampire, an air of tension settling in between them.

            "Robert," he broke the tension, drawing glares from both Faith and Spike.

            The vampire did not respond, turning back to Faith.  "We need to talk."

*******

            "No Dawn, you can't go out with the grownups," Dawn whined, doing a poor imitation of Faith as she negotiated the streets on the way to her house, that was also Faith's house, thanks to her sister.  "And don't try to question me, because I'm psycho Slayer girl."  Being only a few blocks from her house and a considerable distance from where she left Robert and Faith, she wasn't overly worried about her new guardian overhearing the comment.

            Rounding a corner, now only three blocks from her home, Dawn thought she heard footsteps behind her.  She quickly turned around, looking over her shoulder and seeing nothing.  Dismissing it as the wind or leaves, she continued on.  "You have to go to school so you can learn about people who've been dead for two hundred years that didn't come back to life and help little foreign girl get used to life in the amazing, highly-rated American public school system."

            Another sound.  Dawn was determined this time that something was indeed following her.  She gripped the sword in her hand tightly and spun around, the weapon in a ready position to see nothing behind her.  She relaxed, lowering the weapon back to her side.  "Maybe Faith was right," she admitted.  "Maybe I do need some sleep."  She turned around and continued walking.  "She's just so inflexible, never listens, always thinks she's right."

            Less than a block from her house, Dawn finally allowed her guard to relax when it struck.  From the blackness behind her, it attacked, knocking her to the ground.  She recovered quickly, retrieving the sword from the ground and preparing to defend herself but saw nothing around her.  "All right!"  She shouted into the night.  "Vampire or demon or whatever you are!  Let's get this over with!"

            "Soon," a voice echoed all around her.  Dawn wasn't sure if she actually heard it or if it was just in her mind.  Regardless, it was frightening.  "Soon, sister of the Slayer, you will know pain, you will know fear and you will know suffering beyond your darkest fears.  I have arrived."

            "Well, if I'm going to know you arrived, might help me to know who you are!"  Dawn cringed from the physical pain she felt hearing the voice.  When she finished speaking, she heard nothing but laughter.

*******

            "Weird," Kennedy remarked with a shrug as she carried two mugs of steaming hot chocolate to the kitchen table, setting one down in front of Dawn and holding on to one, sitting down at the chair next to Dawn.

            "Weird!"  Dawn echoed, thinking Kennedy failed to understand exactly what it was she was saying.  "No, no, no," Dawn frantically corrected.  "Weird is the meatloaf in the school cafeteria, weird is the new demon karaoke bar downtown that Faith took me to last week."

            "Faith took you there?"  Kennedy hastily interrupted Dawn's ramblings.  Since that particular bar opened two months ago, she had been persistent in asking the Slayer to take her there to stir up some action.

            "Yeah," Dawn answered, obviously not caring about that particular point.  "She was looking for this Me'ika demon that robbed an armored car at the bank and we got a lead that it might be there so we checked it out."

            "I've been begging her to take me there so we could get some action," Kennedy puffed.  "Wonder why she took you," she mused, not intending it to insult Dawn in the way it did.  "Sorry," she said, seeing Dawn's reaction.  "It's just, I know she promised to keep training you but I'm the potential here, you'd think –" Dawn cut her off.

            "Would you focus on the issue here?  Some evil thing terrorized me on the street.  It knew who I was and it promised pain and suffering, not generally considered good things."  Dawn's fear in regards to the attack she was victim to did not go unnoticed by Kennedy.

            "So," Kennedy took a long sip of her hot chocolate.  "We'll figure out whatever it was, find it, kill it."  She made it sound simple, Dawn obviously not thinking it would be so.  "Besides," Kennedy decided a subject change was in order as she placed a comforting hand on top of Dawn's.  "We've got bigger things to worry about."

            "Like?"  Dawn asked with a raised eyebrow.

            "What we're wearing for the first day of school tomorrow."  Kennedy left the table, bolting up the stairs, anxious to start trying on outfits.

            Dawn slowly followed.  "Excited about the first day of school, something evil really is going on here.  As the two girls retreated upstairs, three pairs of glowing green eyes outside the Summers' home watched.  Knowing their habits of their enemies, memorizing their every move, every routine was the key to knowing the perfect time to strike.  That time would be soon.


	3. Act Two

ACT TWO 

            "Let me guess," Faith looked away from the torn apart body and at Spike who stood at a safe distance next to her.  The vampire's behavior was something she didn't understand.  She knew that he knew they were both on the same side and she had promised her stake wouldn't be finding its way near him.  Still, Spike seemed unusually cautious around her.  Added to the fact that she had barely seen him during the past three months, made her curious as to what was going on in the vampire's head.  "You found me and told me so I wouldn't think you did it when I read about it in the paper tomorrow."

            Spike took offense.  That was indeed the main reason he had sought her out to tell her about it but it was still rude of her to assume such a thing.  "And what makes you think I would have been worried about you assuming it was me?"  His defense banked on the assumption Faith didn't know much about his past.  "Ripping people apart from the inside out isn't exactly in style for a vampire.  Much too much wasted blood."

            She smiled almost flirtatiously with him, causing him to take another step back as he feared she was either about to jump him or stake him and neither was a pleasant thought.  "Come on now William the Bloody, just because I dropped out of Slayer school doesn't I don't know a little bit about your past."

            "William the Bloody," Robert quietly mused, recognizing the name from some reading he had done on vampires and other demons during his travels.  "Spike," he commented, further making the connection with other readings of his and with the brief lowdown Angel had given him on Sunnydale before he came.

            "What, you've been telling your little friend about me?"  Spike asked, glaring at Faith.  Faith not answering, Spike decided to return to the matter at hand, ignoring Faith's new friend.  "Even if it does vaguely resemble something I might have enjoyed doing in the past, it definitely doesn't fit the whole vampire with a sole motif I've got going."

            "I know it wasn't you Spike," Faith dropped the game, Spike seeming to actually think she was being serious.

            "Good," Spike's voice dropped as he realized he no longer needed to defend himself.  "'Bout tired of this whole having to prove I'm not evil bit."

            Faith smiled and shook her head.  "Oh, it's not having the soul that makes me sure you didn't do it."  Spike raised an eyebrow in curiosity; Faith stepped closer to him, smile disappearing.  "I know you didn't do it because you know what I would do to you if you did."

            "You threatening me Slayer?"  Spike said grimly, taking a step closer to Faith, standing close enough to feel her breath upon his face.

            "Promising," Faith cocked her head and glared at him.

            "Talicar demon," Robert said, kneeling near and examining the body, again breaking the silent tension between Faith and Spike.  Spike, unlike Faith, had heard of that particular type of demon.  He had of course considered the possibility when he first saw the body but ruled it out, the last sighting of Talicar demon being more than one hundred years ago; most assuming they had been killed.

            "Don't be a nitwit," Spike responded, his feelings toward this newly arrived companion of Faith's quite clear in his voice.  Robert did not acknowledge Spike's insult, merely continued with his examination of the body, prompting the vampire to continue.  "Talicar demons haven't been seen or heard from for over a hundred years, they're extinct."  Spike paused and thought for a moment.  "How do you know about Talicar demons anyways?  Let me guess, books, always books."

            Faith looked at Robert who did not seem deterred by Spike's quick dismissal of his theory.  "You know something?"

            "They're not extinct," he answered, slowly standing and making his way towards the Slayer.  "At least three I ran into a month ago looked pretty lively at the time."

            "You're serious?"  Spike's voice was grave.  If the Talicar demons were still alive and had come to Sunnydale, bad things were bound to start happening and Spike wanted nothing to do with it.  "You're sure they were the Talicar?"  He was not willing to accept so simple an explanation so quickly.  "I mean the demon world is full of posers."  Faith shot him a glare.  "Just saying," the vampire gave a defensive shrug.

            "I tracked one of them to a small village just across the border in Mexico," Robert explained.  "They had a contract there, some local witch doctor that'd pissed off a big wig in the underworld.  They got to him before I did.  I managed to kill one but the other two got away."

            "Contract?"  Having never heard of this particular breed of demon, Faith didn't grasp that part.  "Demons that kill for money huh?"

            "Obviously you've never heard of the Talicar, Slayer," Spike masterfully stated the obvious.  "Before they disappeared they were considered to be the worst hired guns of the demon world.  You give them a mark, they do whatever they have to and go through whoever they have to in order to kill that person and as you can see," Spike waved a hand at the body.  "It's not a pleasant way to die."  The vampire turned to Robert.  "And what the hell was going through your head, tracking one of those things.  Not to mention trying to take them on.  Only three of those things in history have ever been killed.

"

            "Four," Robert wryly corrected him.

            "So," Faith tried to connect the dots in her mind.  "Someone hired a group of demon assassins to come to Sunnydale and take out miscellaneous sailor number three.  Don't buy it," she said, shaking her head.

            "I doubt this was the mark," Spike's voice was cold, referring to the dead person as if he weren't a person at all, merely a piece of a puzzle.  "He either made the mistake of seeing one of the Talicar's when they arrived or they were just hungry.  Either way, no one wanted him dead; they just had fun with him."

            "Meaning we better find out who it is they're here for before we end up with another body on our hands," Robert's initiative took both Faith and Spike by surprise.  Neither had seen such enthusiasm for tracking down demons from any normal person before.

            "Oh wake up," to Spike, the answer was obvious.  "You don't send the best demon assassins the business to a town with a Slayer for any other reason than to take out the Slayer."  He looked Faith in the eye.  "Somebody wants you dead little lady."

            "Lots of people want me dead Spike.  Being a Slayer means people or demons, especially demons, want you dead."

            "Yeah, but you've never been hunted by the Taricals before."  Spike said grimly, remembering the only other time he had seen this particular brand of demons in action before.  "They don't just kill you, they make you suffer.  They make you watch your family, friends, everyone you care about die before they kill you in the most painful way possible."  Spike indicated the body in front of them, ripped apart from the inside out.  Faith, taken aback by his comment, did not respond.  "They take away every reason you have for living before you die."

            "Good thing I don't have anything to live for," both Spike and Robert were caught off guard by Faith's sudden statement.  Though neither knew her well, it was not something they had anticipated the Slayer saying, knowing that she had her new life in Sunnydale if no other reason to live.

            "Don't worry Faith, we'll stop them," Robert offered the only attempt at reassurance.

            "Hope you're not counting me on this we train," Spike seemed more than eager to quickly distance himself from the situation.  "The last thing I need is for those demons to start thinking I'm some part of your life and they decide to rip me apart from the inside out to get to you."  Spike reached into his inner jacket pocket, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it.  "Gotta look out for number one you know."

            With Faith not responding to Spike's deliberately insulting comment, Robert took the lead.  "I'd think you'd be a little bit more interested in stopping these things Spike," he took a purposeful step towards the untroubled vampire.  "After all, I think there are more than a couple rather hefty bounties out on your head.  You know, after the couple years of helping the Slayer defeat demon gods and kill countless vampires and, oh yeah," the sarcasm in his voice grew thicker.  "That whole little thing where you helped to beat down the First.  I imagine there are more than a few characters in the underworld who'd pay good to see you taken out."

Spike tossed the cigarette aside, not willing to let the implied challenge given to him go unanswered.  "I don't know who the hell you are, aside from a self-proclaimed demon hunter with delusions of grandeur but you've got a thing or two to learn if you're going to be hanging around this town for very long."

            Robert grinned, glaring at Spike with a surge of rage running through his eyes.  "Despite what you might think Spike, I do know a little bit about this town and despite what you might like to believe, you're not the big bad anymore."

            Spike gave Robert a large smile.  "I'm getting the feeling you think you can take me."  The vampire was laughing on the inside at the thought of a petty human trying to kill him or even fight him when the human didn't have a death wish.

            "Anytime you want to find out," Robert countered, taking another challenging step towards the vampire.

            "Now boys," Faith sarcastically commented, stepping in between the two, hoping to prevent them from coming to blows.  "As exciting of an idea as it is to see the two of you go at it for a couple rounds, just wouldn't work."  Both Robert and Spike gave her quizzical expressions as they looked away from each other and towards her.  "After all, both of you still have your shirts on and we don't have any oil handy to rub you down in before the fight starts so why don't we put it on hold for now.  You know, until I can get the oil and Dawn and popcorn."

            Sharing another brief, tense glance with each other after looking away from Faith, Spike and Robert both started laughing, the childishness of their attitudes sinking in with both of them.  "You'd better keep this one around Slayer," Spike extended his hand to Robert who grasped it strongly and shook it.  "I think I like him."  Spike again pointed to the body.  "Not much we're going to be able to do tonight, they've fed and they won't be looking to make another kill until tomorrow at the earliest."

            "Sure about that?"  Faith wanted to make absolutely sure, the last thing she wanted was one of these demons going off and killing someone else because she let her guard down.

            "I know enough about these guys to be pretty sure.  We'll meet up tomorrow, go and look for them, bring weapons, lots of weapons," Spike concluded as he turned around, heading for the door to the _Drunken Fisherman_ he was tossed out of earlier.

            "And where are you headed?"  Faith already knew the answer.

            "I'm all of a sudden in a good mood," the vampire cocked his head as he answered.  "And I think these guys tossed me out before I finished my beer."  Spike kicked in the door and strode inside with all the confidence Faith had seen disappear from him when Buffy left.

            "Well he seems better," the Slayer remarked to Robert who remained silent.  "You have a place to stay tonight?"  She turned to focusing on other matters.  It was getting late and she had an early appointment tomorrow herself.

            "I'll manage," Robert turned and began walking out of the alley.  "I'll see you tomorrow night Faith."

            "Be careful," she raised her voice but received no reply when before he disappeared into the shadows.  Hearing what seemed to be a rather large ruckus in the bar and not wanting to become involved in it herself, she became resigned to the fact that her night was winding down.  No kill for the evening, she believed tomorrow would make up for it.

*******

            "And the band nerds," Dawn pointed out another group of students gathered at a picnic table in the quad, all brandishing black instrument cases of various sizes.  Kennedy, walking beside her, listened somewhat attentively as Dawn gave her the run down on various high school social clicks and the rules governing their interactions with each other.  "And the football jocks."

More than listening though, the potential simply took in her surroundings.  The bright California sun, reflecting off the freshly cleaned walls of the still new school made this place seem a lot more hospitable than Dawn had been making it sound the past three months.  Indeed, after listening to Dawn ramble on about the evil of high school, Kennedy was all but prepared to go on her own search for demons around the world, the Slayer finally convincing her she should stay in Sunnydale.

Dawn came to an abrupt halt, pointing her finger at a group of tall, mostly blonde girls in designer, or believable knockoff, clothing, crossing the walkway like they owned not only it but all of the space immediately surrounding it.  "Those right there," her voice was a low whisper as she leaned close to Kennedy.  "Those are the 'popular girls'," Dawn made quote marks with her fingers for added emphasis that she did not think too highly of Brooke, Alyssa, Amber and their crowd.  "Snobs," she added.  As they passed, Kennedy simply stared at them in a needing to be staked manner, knowing from their appearance she wasn't likely to think any better of them.

"Hi Dawn," Brooke, a short blonde in a tight blue dress, gave her a wave and bubbly tone as they passed Dawn and Kennedy.

            "Hey Brooke!"  Dawn enthusiastically responded as the girls continued to pass.  "Love the dress," Brooke waved a thank you to Dawn's compliment over her back as the group of girls continued past them.

            "I thought you didn't like them," Kennedy was confused, not accustomed to the complexities of high school politics.

            "Hate 'em," Dawn answered with a perky smile.

            "Then why," Kennedy tried to make sense of it.

            "You'll figure it out," Dawn reassured her.

            "I'm beginning to think memorizing the weaknesses of over one hundred species of demons will be easier than this," Kennedy and Dawn resumed their strolling through the quad, books in hand, making their way to the halls, classes set to begin in less than ten minutes.

            "You know the weaknesses of over one hundred demons?"  Dawn was not sure even Buffy could come up with such statistics from memory.  In fact, she was sure Buffy couldn't come up with such things from memory alone.

            "Gotta be prepared for the job," she answered with a shrug.

            "Indeed you do," a deep voice came from behind the two girls.  Both quickly turned around, smiles adorning their faces, to see Principal Wood standing behind them, hands held in the pants pockets of his light gray suit.  He walked up to them, a smile on his own face.  The last time he had seen the two young girls was in the spring, when they were all in mortal danger and it was a pleasant change to see them under more normal circumstances.  "How are you two?"

            "Good," they answered in unison.

            "Adjusting all right?"  He turned to Dawn, obviously asking how her new Buffy-free, Faith-full life was treating her.  As different as things felt, the sister of the Slayer couldn't tell a lie.

            "So far so good," not lying but also not wanting to make things so too perfect.

            Satisfied with the answer, the principal looked at Kennedy, silently asking the same question.  "Five by five," she answered.  "As Faith would say."

            "Don't start talking like her," Dawn raised her eyebrows and shook her head.

            "Speaking of Faith," Wood asked, looking around the quad at the risk he had somehow missed the Slayer.  "Did she give you two a ride to school this morning?  I called her yesterday and asked if she would meet with me this morning but I haven't seen her."

            "She was out late last night," Kennedy jumped to the answer.

            "You know all that sacred calling stuff," Dawn's voice did not hide that she was still put out about Faith sending her home while she ran off with an old friend, no doubt partying for all hours of the night.

            "I'm sure she'll show though," Kennedy added.

            "Yeah, well, guess I better be waiting in my office then," Wood concluded, knowing he had things to do, regardless of if the Slayer came and also knowing the two girls would soon have to get to class.  "Look, if either of you have any problems or need anything or just want to chat, don't hesitate to pop in."  He turned around and walked away.

            As the bell indicating that classes would begin in five minutes sounded, the two girls proceeded into the hallways.  Their schedules, no doubt conveniently arranged by a friendly principal, had them taking the same classes at the same times, making it easier for Dawn to show the new girl around.  Taking a seat at the back of Mrs. Feazell's trigonometry class and listening to the start of the lecture with a degree of interest, Dawn breathed a sigh of relief, thirty minutes into the school year and nothing evil happening et.

*******

            Faith hated being late.  She never used to hate being late; she never used to care what time she showed up for something or even if she showed up at all.  Growing accustomed to life in Sunnydale the past three months, looking out for Dawn in particular, had her gaining something of a responsible streak however. 

She was also slightly more than curious to hear what it was Principal Wood wanted to talk to her about.  On the phone, all he said was he had a proposition she might be interested in.  Her first reaction was to comment she wanted to stop being that kind of girl; he insisted that wasn't what he wanted to talk about, though jokingly admitted she could do worse.

Walking into the school, struggling into her dark blue denim jacket, two teachers made the mistake of telling her she needed to hurry, that classes had already started and she didn't want to be late.  One even offered to "show her the way" in case she was lost.  Faith scoffed at the idea she could possibly look that young, not with how old she felt.  It didn't take her long to locate Wood's office.  Stepping inside, she stood awkwardly scanning the room, feeling out of place as the eyes of the principal's secretary fell firmly upon her.

"Can I help you miss?"  The stern faced old woman also seemed to believe she was another lost student, trying to find her way on the first day of school and ending up in the place most hoped they would never see.

"Uh … yeah," Faith felt as out of place as she looked.  "Got an appointment."

"Your name?"  She opened her appointment book, tapping a pencil against it.

"Faith."

Not seeing anything in the book, the secretary picked up the receiver to her phone, pressing the button that connected her to the principal's office.  "Principal Wood, a young lady here to see you, name of Faith."  A moment of the silence, Faith unable to hear his response.  She replaced the receiver and made a not in her book before looking back up at Faith.  "Go on in ma'am."  Faith did not offer a thanks, simply walked to the door, turning the handle and pressing open.

Seated at her desk, the principal gave a half-smile when the Slayer entered.  "Faith, good to see you," as with Dawn and Kennedy, it was better to be seeing her under normal circumstances than the last time they met.  He stood and shook the Slayer's hand, feeling the hesitation it.  "Can I get you something," he motioned to a chair in front of his desk, Faith sat down as he took his seat.  "Coffee?  Tea?"

"No thanks, five by five," she answered with a shrug.

"How've you been doing?"  Wood decided it best to ease into the conversation rather than coming straight to the point, wanting to get a feeling on her frame of mind before he got to the real reason he had asked her here.

"Good," Faith didn't seem to be much of a conversationalist.

Wood struggled, remembering that holding casual conversation with people used to be easier.  "Good summer?"  He thought that an open-ended question might do more to open the lines of communication.

"Not bad."  Faith paused.  "Slaying.  You?"

"The usual I guess, took a trip.  You know, after everything that happened last spring, needed a little bit of time away from everything to clear my head.  It was good for me I think."

"Yeah," Faith popped a bubble with her chewing gum.  "Time away can help."  Wood hadn't thought of her colorful past before making that comment, pleased to see that it didn't seem to offend her.

"Well, down to business I suppose," Wood concluded he wasn't going to get very far with small talk.  Faith, paying more attention that it seemed, popped her gum again.  "I know you're going to be around Sunnydale for a while so I thought I might try to help you out a little bit."

Though Faith knew the principal was talented and had killed a demon or two in his time, she didn't feel inclined to accept his offer.  "Look, as far as the slaying goes, I've got it under control you know?  Besides, hasn't been too much to worry about lately, just the usual bunch."

Wood laughed softly, Faith instantly realizing she had misinterpreted his offer for help.  "I'm not talking about that Faith, though, if you ever do need a hand in that area, I'll be glad to pitch in what I can.  Look, as far as I know, you don't have a job and Buffy was one of my best counselors here.  I had to let her go so she could handle the First but now –"

Faith cut him off, a genuinely stunned expression gracing her face.  "You're offering me a job?"  She all but sprang from the chair, suddenly feeling the need to be ready to get out as soon as possible.  "Look, Principal Wood, I'm flattered really but –" Wood now cut her off.

"You haven't gone to college, dropped out of high school, have spent the last few years in prison, just received a mysterious pardon from the governor and used to be evil."  Faith's expression grew to quizzical, wondering why he had bothered to learn so much about her life.  "Did I miss anything?"

"Think you got it all," her voice grew soft as she settled back into the chair.  

Wood walked around his desk to be closer to her, sitting on the surface of it and looking down into the Slayer's eyes.  "Look Faith, these kids here, they're going through a lot of problems.  I'm not going to say the same type of problems you went through but I think it might do them some good to have some to talk to that has been through the worst of life, lived through it and now wants to make a positive difference in the world."

"Yeah, well, wanting to make a positive difference by killing evil things isn't the same as letting kids spill out their problems and telling them what to do.  I mean, what if I told them the wrong thing?"

Wood smiled, wanting to break through her reluctance and seeing it wavering.  "Look, if that's all you're worried about, just think of what you would have done in their situation and tell them to do the opposite."  The Slayer laughed slightly.  "Look Faith, you don't have to take this job but I think it would do the kids some and you some good to."  With no response from Faith, Wood went to his last reason.  "And besides, the school board is telling me I better hire Buffy's replacement soon, threatening to do it for me if I don't and you're about my only candidate.  Now you'd have to pass a high school equivalency exam and have an interview with a psychologist before you could begin but –"

"I'll do it," Faith conceded.  She would need the money soon enough and the principal was right, it might be good for her, something to take her mind away from her own problems and help her face them at the same time.

"Good, good.  Now, how about that cup of coffee?"

*******

            "Andrew my man," Xander dug his fork into another bite of the five cheese omelet his roommate had cooked this morning.  Quickly chewing and swallowing the food, washing it down with a swig of coffee, he smiled.  "This is quite possibly the most awesome breakfast I've ever had."  He took a bite of the bacon, not too crisp but not soggy either, quickly followed by a sampling of light brown toast.

            "Well," Andrew replied shyly, shoveling another helping of hash browns onto Xander's plate.  "I just wanted to do something to make you see that having me around here might not be a totally bad thing."

            Xander all but ignored his comment as he flipped through the pages of the morning paper, switching between eating and drinking coffee with his free hand.  "Man, I'll tell you, you keep this up, you might not have to pay rent."

            "Really?"  The jobless, former self-proclaimed super villain, enthusiastically took Xander's comment as being serious.

            "No," Xander replied dryly.

            There was a heavy knocking sound at the door.  Andrew was quick to volunteer to answer it, not wanting to disturb Xander from his breakfast or paper reading.  "You expecting company?"  He asked, discarding his white apron in a corner as he approached the door.

            "No," Xander answered, still barely paying attention.  He was engrossed a story about a cat saving someone from a burning building, suspecting that a cat with that kind of strength and intelligence could possibly be up to something.  "Probably a salesman or you know, a demon sent to kill us."  He made the comment to jokingly refer to the noticeable slump in demon activity since the First was defeated.

            Andrew laughed, opened the door and was stunned in silence.  A large figure, easily seven feet tall, with a snout shaped mouth, glowing red eyes, black scales covering its entire body and long pointed claws at the end of its fingers was standing in the doorway.  Andrew shrieked as the demon grasped his neck, squeezing the life from him.


	4. Act Three

ACT THREE 

            Hearing Andrew's girlish shriek, Xander turned and saw the black creature holding him by his neck at the doorway.  Watching his roommate have the life squeezed out of him, Xander was quick to action.  Grabbing a steak knife from the kitchen drawer, he charged towards the demon.  Not wanting to inadvertently injure his roommate, Xander attempted to drive the knife into the arm of the creature with all of his strength.

            In doing so however, Xander was reminded that he did not have any super-strength.  Upon hitting the black scales of the demon, Xander learned that they didn't just look like armor.  The knife blade broke into pieces and a scorching pain from the failed attack shot through his arm.  Reacting to his failed attempt, the demon threw Andrew across the room, sending him crashing into the table, breakfast items flying about the room and hit Xander with the back of his hand, sending him into the nearest wall.

            Wasting no time, the creature stabbed its claws at Xander's head, barely missing thanks to his quick reflexes, ducking out of the way.  With Xander crouching on the floor beneath him, the demon jabbed its claws toward him, sticking into the apartment floor when he rolled away.  Taking advantage of the demon's momentary weakness, Andrew ran towards it, meat cleaver in hand.  He struck the demon rapidly about the head until his makeshift weapon shattered in his hand, having not penetrated the black armor scales of the demon.

            Pulling its claws from the floor, the demon slashed with both pairs at Andrew.  He jumped away from each slash, screeching for help louder with each consecutive missed attack.  Xander recovered quickly and jumped on the demon's back, covering his eyes, or what he thought to be his eyes, with his hands.  "Run!"  He hadn't needed to give Andrew the instruction, his roommate was already running for the door as the demon flailed about, trying to remove Xander from its back.  Once Andrew was through the door, barely holding it open, waiting for him, Xander made his move.

            When the demon was turned away from the front door, Xander jumped off his back, pushing him towards the nearest wall and making a break for the door.  Needing only a second to recover, the massive demon was quick in pursuit.  Luck was with Xander it seemed.  He made it out the door, slamming it behind him and Andrew quickly locked it with his key.

            "What was that?"  Andrew was still panting, both of the men had transferred their weight against the door in an attempt to hold the creature inside should it try to break through the door.

            "Very, very, very, very bad thing," Xander's voice oozed with sarcasm.  "For the record, I didn't know that was going to be a demon," Xander thought making light of the situation, given his comment before Andrew opened the door, might help the situation.

            It did not.

"We need to get Faith," Xander couldn't believe he actually used those words though desperate times call for desperate measures.

            "Right, find the Slayer, the Slayer kills demons," Andrew's mouth was working several seconds behind his brain.  "But how do we keep the demon in there while we find the Slayer, so the Slayer can kill the demon."

            Black claws slammed through the door in between the heads of the two would be victims.  "Somehow I don't think that's going to be a problem," the demon's second pair of claws punctured the door and Xander could hear the hinges straining as it attempted to pull the door off.

            "Run?"  Following the attempt on their lives, Andrew wasn't able to think entirely clearly.

            "Run."  The two bolted down the hall and out of the apartment with no sign of the demon in pursuit and quickly piled into Xander's car.  With the engine started, he threw the car into drive, and gunned it out of the parking lot.  Xander was thankful he did not have to work this morning because he wouldn't be making it in on time.  He drove through the streets as quickly as possible, barely obeying traffic laws on his way to Faith's or more correctly Buffy's house.

*******

            A rerun.  Spike wondered what minion of hell had come up with the concept of the rerun.  More so than that, he wondered which had come up with the idea of having a rerun on every single television station available.  Finding nothing of interest on any channel, Spike ceased fingering the remote and settled on watching the rerun of _Passions_, a particular episode he had seen three or four times.

            Watching a particular scene, Spike couldn't believe exactly how stupid some of these people were.  "Oh, bloody!"  He tossed the remote at the set.  "She's cheating on you with your identical twin you stupid git!  No wonder he unplugs your life support when you're in a coma, you're bloody idiot!"  It wasn't the show, the vampire was simply frustrated.  Even the late night brawl in the _Drunken_ _Fisherman hadn't done much to relieve the tension he was feeling.  Something about being a potential target for a Tarical demon didn't sit well with him._

            Spike stood, pacing about the crypt.  Having only moved back in three months ago, something about it just didn't feel as right to him as it used to.  Probably had something to do with the fact that he hadn't lived in it since his soul was given back.  Something about the whole crypt scene just didn't appeal to him as much as it did when he was still evil or on the brink of evil.

            At least he would be able to get out tonight; even if it was to do something most sensible people would consider suicide.  Faith hardly seemed the sensible type though and whoever this Robert character was seemed more suicidal than most independent demon hunters he had encountered in his years.  Granted, a healthy degree of suicidal tendencies was good for a demon hunter but this man seemed all too willing to put himself into life or death situations, especially, Spike considered, challenging him.

            A knocking at the door echoed throughout the crypt, quickly putting Spike on the defensive.  It was not often he received visitors and anything that would visit a crypt in the first place didn't exactly qualify as the type of visitors he would want to receive.  Picking up a discarded two by four conveniently laying on the floor, Spike slowly slid towards the door.

            "Who is it?"  Spike took the chance that if it was someone intent on killing him, they might be stupid enough to reveal their true purpose.

            "Post office," a rather shaky male voice answered.

            Spike grinned and shook his head; they weren't even being creative anymore.  "Yeah bloody right," the vampire whispered to himself.  "Getting mail in a crypt, that'll be the day."  Standing to the side of the door to avoid a deadly dose of sunlight, Spike raised his weapon with one hand and reached for the door handle with the other.  Flinging it open, he prepared to strike.

            Seeing a man in a post office uniforms walk in, Spike barely managed to stop his swing before the board landed atop his head and tossed the board to the side.  "You Spike?"  The man was noticeably scared as he surveyed the interior of the vampire's home.

            "Yeah, what's it to you?"

            "A letter," he handed Spike an envelope, his hand shaking.

            "How'd you find me?"  Spike noticed there was nothing aside from his name written on the envelope and, even with this being Sunnydale, he doubted the post office had a list of demon haunts and homes, an up to date list at least.

            "Wherever this was mailed from had directions and they passed them on to us," he continued nervously looking about the crypt, keeping a steady eye on Spike at all times.  "Can I go now?"

            Spike considered having some fun with him but decided it wouldn't be in his best interest.  "Yeah, get out before I change my mind."  The postal employee was quick to obey, slamming the door to the crypt behind him.  Spike sat back down in front of the television and turned the set off with his remote control before tearing into the envelope.  He instantly recognized the scent on the single sheet of paper as he unfolded it and began reading.

            _Dear Spike,_

_I'm sorry this letter has been so long in coming; no doubt you've probably been won wondering if I'm all right and I apologize again for being out of touch for so long.  I wanted to write to let you know that I'm fine.  Please tell Dawn, Xander, Kennedy and Faith that both _Willow___ and I are still alive and doing well.  I don't have a whole lot of time to write this, we're in _New York__ right now, about to hop a ship to ___Spain__ so I need to make this brief._

_I know this isn't what you wanted Spike.  In a lot of ways, it isn't what I wanted either.  I guess we all have to do things we don't necessarily like or even want, if that's what gets the job done.  I can't tell you, how much it means to me, that you were willing to stay in Sunnydale.  I'm still not sure about Faith taking care of everything and having you there makes me feel a lot better about everything, even though I know it's not what you wanted._

_So, I guess, I'm trying to say thank you.  Thank you for everything you've done and thank you for everything you're still doing.  I couldn't have done it without you, I still can't.  I don't know if that means anything to you but well, it does to me._

_Tell the rest of the gang not to worry about _Willow___ and I, we're managing pretty well.  Please Spike, take care of Dawn and take care of yourself.  I'll try not to be so long in writing next time._

_                                                                                    Love,_

_                                                                                    Buffy_

            "What do you know," Spike crumpled up the letter and tossed it over his shoulder, not caring where it landed.  "She does remember me."  The vampire swiped his remote from the chair's arm and clicked the television back on, deciding that watching reruns of fictional people's messed up lives was preferable to dealing with his own.

            Another knocking at the door, this one significantly louder.  "Let me guess," Spike picked up the two by four again as he want to the door.  "Federal Express!  Can't a vampire get a moment worth of peace!"  As Spike approached, the door burst open, a large black figure standing in it.  Spike jumped out of the way, dodging the few rays of sunlight that made it past the Tarical demon and froze, desperately needing a plan.  The Tarical flexed its long claws and slowly approached Spike, opening its mouth and emitting a slight snarl.

            "Oh, they lot the doggy out to play," Spike tapped the board against his hand as the demon approached.  Preparing for battle, Spike's face changed to that of its demon nature and the vampire grinned.  "Well, let's have some fun!"  Spike ran towards the demon, dodging the slashing claws and slamming the two by four against its head, splinters of wood shattering.  Spike had forgotten exactly how strong the skin of Tarical was.  The demon turned and hit him in the face with an open hand, sending him flying into the top of a wall.

            Sliding down it, Spike collapsed to the floor.  "Ow," he managed.  He regained his footing, with the demon slowly advancing on him, lowered his head and charged.  He rammed his shoulder into its stomach, slowing it down long enough for him to land a series of blows with his fists on its chest.  Before it could respond, Spike hit the Tarical with his strongest uppercut underneath its chin.

            The demon was not stopped however.  It slammed both of its fists down on Spike's shoulders, sending the vampire to his knees before kicking him in the face, sending him flying back into the wall.  "Strong little bugger," Spike popped his neck as he regained his footing yet again with the demon charging towards him, claws held in front of it.  Spike ducked out of the way, the Tarical impaling its claws into the wall.

            Spike escaped from between the demon and the wall, punching the Tarical multiple times in the back and kicking its knees, or what he thought were its knees.  None of Spike's attacks seem to phase the creature however.  It kicked Spike in the chest, sending him flying into the furthest wall.  The Tarical pulled its claws out of the wall and charged towards the still recovering vampire.

            When Spike got back to his feet, the demon was upon him.  He could not react quickly enough to escape this time; the demon drove one set of claws into his shoulder, pinning him against the wall of the crypt.  Spike did not scream; he refused to.  "Don't you go thinking I'm going to give you the pleasure of hearing me scream for my life," the vampire spit a mouth full of blood into the face of the demon which only snarled in response as it positioned its other set of claws in front of Spike's neck.

            As he braced himself for the final blow, Spike heard the familiar sound of a sword clearing its sheath.  The demon was not distracted by this until a sword pierced its lowered back from behind.  It cried out in pain, releasing Spike who fell to the floor and saw Robert standing behind the demon, pulling his sword from its back.

            "Good timing," Spike decided to hold the question of how he found him for a later time, springing to his feet, ready to join the demon hunter in the battle.

            "Thanks," Robert swung his sword at the head of the demon which ducked out of the way.  Returning the attack by slashing its claws at the demon hunter, Robert parried with his sword.  Reaching into his trench coat, he pulled a shorter sword with a curved blade from his side and slid it across the floor to Spike before stabbing at the demon who sidestepped the attack.

            Taking advantage of the Tarical's focusing on Robert, Spike charged behind it, stabbing the blade into the demon's upper back, quickly pulling it out and stabbing it in the neck.  The demon growled in pain, distracted from its battle by the wounds Spike had inflicted.  Robert brought his sword around, cutting the demon across its upper legs, stomach and chest before finally cutting it across and stabbing it through its neck.  Spike spun his sword around in his fingers several times before driving the blade again into the upper back of the collapsing creature.  It fell to the floor, still drawing weak breathes.

            Robert sheathed his sword, reached into his coat, underneath his shoulder pulling one of his black, semi-automatic Glock pistols.  Aiming at the creatures head, he fired sixteen rounds into it, green blood splattering on the floors of the crypt with each shot until the demon finally succumbed.  Robert changed the magazine in his pistol and replaced it in the holster, Spike took a nearby clothed, wiped the blood from the blade and handed it back to Robert as well.

            "You know how much it's going to cost to have that cleaned?"  Spike pointed to the demon blood covering the floor.

            Robert placed the sword back in the sheath.  "What is it with Sunnydale and people, or vampires in your case, not thanking someone when he rescues them from unspeakable evil?"

            "I had it completely under control," Spike took the time to wipe the blood from his lips.  "Was just getting ready to finish him when you walked in with your swords and guns and all.  Lots of hardware by the way."

            "Yeah well, got to make up for not having super human strength one way or another."

            "So, I guess you were right," Spike kicked the body of the demon once for good measure.  "Looks like the Tarical demons have come to Sunnydale.  Looks like they know pretty well who is allied with the Slayer too.  Lucky me."

            "We should check on Faith."

            Spike sighed and shook his head.  Again, Robert displayed his definite lack of knowledge regarding demon tactics.  "We don't need to be worrying about her yet," he sat back down in his chair, turning the television on, planning to catch the last few minutes of _Passions_.  "Like I said, these guys take out everyone she cares about first, and then they go after her."

            Robert walked behind Spike, leaning on the back of his chair and glaring at the set.  "This is the one where he finds out she's cheating on him," he commented, recognizing the particular scene in the episode Spike was watching.

            "How'd you know that?  Don't exactly seem like the soap opera type?"  Spike realized the irony of that statement a second too late to do anything about it.

            "Kid sister used to watch it all the time," Robert's voice became grin.  He focused on the problem at hand, worrying about Faith.  He leaned closer to Spike's ear and whispered in it.  "Just an idol thought, how high do you think you rank on the list of people Faith cares about?"  Spike realized his point.  "Still think we have time?"

            "Right," Spike jumped up, collecting his trench coat from the arm of the chair, tossing it over his head.  "You drive then."  They approached the door and Spike placed an arm in front of Robert, stopping him.  "By the way, how did you find me and what were you doing here in the first place?"

            "Actually, thought I'd see if you wanted to get in a little friendly sparring.  As for how I found you, went to the demon bar and told them I was a friend of yours, they pointed me in the right direction."

            "I gotta find a new place."

*******

            "Faith!  Faith!"  Xander and Andrew both shouted as they pounded on the door to Buffy's former house.  As they pounded repeatedly on the door, both kept a watchful eye behind them, in case the demon they encountered earlier was in pursuit.

            While Xander increased his rate of pounding on the door, Andrew was the first to notice a red Ford Mustang pulling up to the Summers' house behind Xander's car.  "Xander, Xander," Andrew rapidly tapped his shoulder, drawing his attention to the approaching vehicle.  "I think I heard somewhere that evil things always ride in sports cars."  The passenger door to the car flew open, revealing a figure dressed all in black with a black coat over his head that quickly ran to the cover from the sunlight provided by the porch, smoke rising from his body.

            "No not evil," Xander glared at Spike as he removed his makeshift shield and put his coat on in a normal fashion.  "Just, really, really, annoying."

            "Put a sock in it," Spike was hasty with his come back.  Xander, occupied with Spike, did not notice Robert slowly approach.  "What are you and nerd boy doing here anyways?"

            "Excuse me," Andrew spoke before Xander could, drawing a glare from Spike who did not care to hear whatever it was he had to say.  "But I prefer, normal boy, or former super-villain boy or –"

            "How about late breakfast, early lunch boy?"  Spike really had no interest in eating him, simply in shutting him up.

            "Nerd boy works fine."

            "And what are you two doing," Xander realized he had never seen Robert before.  "And who are you for that matter?"  It had been his experience that new people in Sunnydale typically meant trouble, especially when the first time said new person was seen, it was in the company of Spike.

            "Robert Bloodworth."

            "Demon hunter extraordinaire, at least in his own mind."  Spike added.

            "We're looking for Faith," Robert decided it best to skip the gruesome details of his and Spike's encounter with the demon.

            "Us to," Xander was however willing to be more forthcoming with information.  "Some evil demon thing decided to have us for a morning snack and we need Faith's special brand of taking care of it."

            "Talicars," Robert and Spike looked at each other, making the same comment at the same time.  "Spike and I just took care of one," Robert continued.  "We think they might be after Faith to."

            "Well, she doesn't seem to be home or," the possible implications hit Xander like a rock in the head.  "Oh no."

            "They could have gotten to her already.  Our last chance for survival could already have been defeated by those sent to kill us all."  Andrew rambled as he became increasingly nervous that they all might not survive until tomorrow.

            "Shut up!"  Xander and Spike both insisted.

            Robert, remaining cool despite the circumstances, approached the door, surveying what little he could see of the interior.  Drawing his pair of curve bladed short swords from his sides, he handed them to Spike before drawing his matching pair of Glock pistols from underneath his arms.  "Spike, cover me."  With a swift movement, he kicked the door in, scanning the inside, weapons ready before he proceeded in, the vampire close behind.  "You two wait here."

            "Yes sir," Xander acknowledged with a wry salute.  Robert ignored him.  "Great," he muttered as they entered.  "Rambo and a vampire, this couldn't get any worse."

            "It could be vampire Rambo," Andrew offered.

            "Shut up."

            "Faith!"  Robert shouted as he surveyed the ground floor of the house, Spike close behind him.  "Faith!"  Robert went so far as to check the cabinets in the kitchen, being thorough in his search, keeping his pistols ready to fire.

            "Slayer!"  Spike shouted angrily.  Immediately after, the vampire started laughing.

            "Something funny?"  Robert poked his head around the staircase, making sure it was clear before proceeding up it.

            "Just not used to carrying weapons, looking for a Slayer when I'm not planning to kill her."  Robert shot him a slightly mocking expression.  "Remember, I used to be evil you know."

            "Yeah well, we all have our demons I suppose," Robert slowly walked up the steps.

            "And apparently not knocking is one the two of you share," Faith's voice from behind them caught them both by surprise.  As she approached, Spike and Robert let down their guard, Robert placing his pistols back in their holsters and took his swords back from Spike, securing them as well.

            "Sorry Faith, the Taricals went after Spike and your other friends, we thought you might be in trouble," Robert felt the sudden need to justify their breaking and entering.

            "Hey, not a problem," she said, waving off any other further attempts at apologizing.  "So they're making their move already?  Thought someone said they wouldn't be trying anything until tonight?"  She shot Spike a glare that almost made him thing that a stake wouldn't be very far behind.

            "Right, like I'm supposed to be able to perfectly predict the behavior of demons that have been doing the underworlds dirty work for millennia.  Even I can be wrong on occasion Slayer."

            "Can't worry about that now, we just need to worry about stopping them."

            "They usually travel in packs of fours," Spike remembered what he could about them.  "He and I got one of them.  One came after the two out there, meaning we've probably got to worry about two trying to get at you."

            Faith was about to agree when she remembered what Spike told her about the way these demons go about their killing.  "Dawn!"  She shouted running outside.  Robert and Spike were quick behind, the three of them quickly jumping into his car while Andrew and Xander were in the other.

*******

            "That guy is checking you out," Kennedy leaned over and whispered to Dawn, pointing to a guy with blonde hair in the front row, neither of the girls paying a great deal of attention to Mr. Watson's lecture on reconstruction following the Civil War.

            Dawn looked up from the notes she was pretending to take, a big smile quickly appearing on her face.  "Tyler?"  She beamed.  The majority time she hadn't spent making it through classes or worrying about the festering Hellmouth last year had been spent trying to get Tyler Jacobson to notice her.

            Kennedy nodded.  "That's a good thing?"  She was far from being an expert in such things.  Aside from the obvious, the whole high school dating game didn't make a great deal of sense to her.

            "Well, yeah, I mean, look at him," Dawn commented, now staring from her near back row seat to the guy in the front row, diligently taking notes.  She was so involved in her gazing, she had momentarily forgotten who she was talking to.

            "Can't say such things appeal to me," Kennedy gave a playful response, not wanting Dawn to incorrectly believe she had taken any offense to the comment.

            Mr. Watson, hearing the two girls conversing, cleared his throat and shot them a stern look before continuing with his lecture by drawing various illustrations on the chalkboard.

            Kennedy lowered her voice.  "Talk to him after class."

            "No, no, no," Dawn quickly answered.  "No talking, only looking."

            "How come?"  Again, Kennedy did not understand the seeming complexities of these high school dating and relationship games.  She also considered that she understood them perfectly and that Dawn was the one who didn't understand.

            "Because, I try to talk to him, I fail and then nothing ever happens, ever.  I don't talk to him, then I can at least preserve the dream that something might happen at some point."  Listening to Dawn, Kennedy considered that her second explanation was beginning to sound more and more correct.

            "You can't just wait for things to happen Dawn," Kennedy didn't need to go into the details about how she didn't wait for things to happen between her and Willow, as it was a story Dawn already knew quite well.

            "You're waiting to become the Slayer," Dawn had Kennedy there and was pleased with her creative way of not talking about the subject.  Before the potential could respond, one of the classroom windows shattered, a large, black creature with glowing red eyes and long claws on its fingers came flying through.  Everyone in the class, including Mr. Watson, panicked, screaming and running into the hall, save for Dawn and Kennedy who sat still.  "Though right now I'm wishing you were one."


	5. Act Four

ACT FOUR 

            Seeing Faith and her entourage burst through the main doors to the school, all but running through the hallway, Principal Wood wasted no time in leaving his office and meeting up with them.  "Kennedy and Dawn," Faith asked before the Principal could say anything.  "Where are they?"

Though he wanted to, the principal didn't waste time in asking what was going on, knowing if it was important enough for Faith, Spike, Xander, Andrew and, someone else, to be showing up in the middle of the day in a panic, he didn't need to delay them.  "Second period American History with Mr. Watson, room 313."  Not wasting any further time, Faith bolted down the hall, her four friends in tow, Wood now also following them.  

On the way to the classroom, Robert began passing out weapons, a short sword to both Spike and Wood, a dagger to Xander and Andrew and finally drew his long sword in one hand and a Glock in the other.  Faith reached behind her coat, to the small of her back, drawing her own dagger.

"What's going on?"  Wood asked Andrew, the closest member of the group to him.

"Some ancient demon assassin things are after Faith, but first they kill everyone she cares about, so we think they're after Dawn and Kennedy," Andrew briefly stopped his explanation as a group of panicking students, not including Dawn and Kennedy, led by Mr. Watson ran through the hall.

"What's happening?"  Wood asked, grabbing the teacher by the shirt.

"Some … something … some thing!"  Was all Mr. Watson could manage before Wood let him go, running at full pace to catch up with Faith's group.

"One already tried to kill Xander and me," Andrew continued, thinking his story would impress the principal.  "We engaged it in fierce mortal combat and after a long, tiring battle, emerged victorious."

"You locked it in the bloody apartment and ran away," Spike corrected before Wood could reply.

In the classroom, with the demon closing on them, Kennedy knew she only had seconds to react.  Jumping and pushing Dawn out of its path, she grabbed a nearby yardstick and swung it like a sword at the hellish black creature.  The creature did not waver as a result of her attempted defense, only pressed on.  Landing the yardstick square in the chest of the demon, the wooden weapon shattered.

Pushing Dawn aside, the Tarical grabbed Kennedy with one hand, all but crushing her neck with its grip, holding her up against the chalkboard.  The demon brought its other clawed hand perpendicular with Kennedy's neck as the young girl still struggled to get away but could do nothing but stare at the claws.  Tiny tendrils emerged from the beast's claws, eight from each one, all of them moving, seemingly with a mind of its own.  They punched through her clothes and then through her skin and different places across her body.

She could feel the tendrils moving about inside of her, spreading, expanding, and ripping through her.  Kennedy closed her eyes and cried in pain.  Then the pain stopped.  Kennedy opened her eyes when the demon released her to see a dagger embedded in its skull and Faith, along with several others, standing at the door to the classroom.  The demon snarled, pulling the dagger out and throwing it aside.

"Maybe you guys didn't get the memo," Faith coolly walked into the classroom, removing her dark blue denim jacket and tossing it aside on the floor.  "But there's a new Slayer in town who doesn't appreciate having contracts out on her head."  Spike and Robert entered behind her, their weapons at the ready.

"And her friends are a lot better at staying alive than yours," Spike's face changed again to its true form as he spun the sword around in his fingers, anticipating the battle.

Wasting no time to lick its wounds, the Talicar charged at Faith.  Robert tossed her his sword as she assumed a defensive stance.  The demon slashed madly with its claws, Faith jumping out of the way or parrying each attack with near effortless skill.  The Slayer popped into a spinning kick, hitting the Talicar in the end, sending it careening into the hard tile floor.

Faith wasted no time.  She flipped the sword around in her hand and stabbed it into the demon's back.  It let out a cry of pain but did not yield.  Before she could remove the weapon, the Talicar kicked, sending her flying into a chalkboard on the adjacent wall.  It pulled the sword from its back and tossed the weapon at the temporarily stunned Slayer.  Faith recovered quickly and with the blade of the sword and inch from her head, closed her hands around the blade, catching it.  As the demon charged towards her, she readied the weapon.

Making a diagonal slash with the blade, she cut the demon from shoulder to thigh, causing it to fall back.  Jumping into a scissor kick, the Slayer landed three blows on its face, again causing the demon the move backwards, slightly stunned by her attacks.  Faith swung the sword again, aiming to cut the demon in the stomach but this time it was prepared.  The Talicar grabbed her arm, twisting it backward and punching her in the face with its other hand.  Faith slid across the floor, her head impacting against the hard concrete classroom walls.

Robert started to run to help the Slayer but Wood put an arm out in front of him.  "Wait, she can handle it," he reassured him.

The Talicar leapt at Faith, flying through the air, its claws aimed to gut the Slayer.  She reacted quickly, bringing the sword up and stabbing it through the stomach while in midair.  The demon gasped for air, falling to its knees with the sudden blow of the sword severely weakening it.  Faith stood, now more resolute to win this battle and feeling stronger.  She delivered a ferocious right cross followed immediately by an equally powerful left hook and a single kick to the demons face.

Faith pressed on.  Hitting the demon with an uppercut, a spinning kick and eight more quick punches to its head, a final leaping kick sending it sailing across the classroom, close to the position it was first in when she entered the room, Robert's sword still stuck in its stomach.  Faith slowly slid towards it, a predator ready to finish its wounded prey.  She reached down, picking up her dagger off the floor.

The Talicar attempted to stand but Faith knocked its legs out from under it before hitting with her left elbow and fist all in a quick motion.  With her free hand, she pulled the sword from the demon's stomach and jammed it through one leg, effectively immobilizing it.  Faith crouched down, looking him in the eye, seeing nothing.  No hate, no fear, just evil.  She jammed her dagger through the same eye and watched the light fade from the other before pulling both weapons from the lifeless corpse.  She sheathed her dagger and tossed the sword back to Robert.

"Two down."  Looking solely at Robert and Spike, the Slayer issued a proclamation.  "This ends tonight."

"Count me in," Robert was quick to answer.  Faith saw pure hatred burning inside of him, knowing he had deeper reasons for wanting these demons dead.  There would be another time for her to find those out.

"I'm with you too Slayer," though Spike seemed more hesitant, Faith did not doubt his support.  "For better or worse."

Wood pushed his way through the three of them, bending down next to and examining Kennedy.  "I don't think it's too bad but we should get her to the hospital.

"I'm fine," Kennedy protested though she struggled to get to her feet, the small wounds the demon's tendrils had made in her hurting a great deal.

"Just to be on the safe side."

"Xander, Andrew," Faith began handing out assignments, reminding both of them all too much of Buffy.  "You two go with her to the hospital, if one of those things shows up."

"We'll run and find you," Andrew's suggestion surprised no one.

"Good answer."

"Dawn and I will go with her too, I'll have school shut down early for the day so we can get this mess taken care of," Wood exercised near complete control over the situation and of his own emotions, worrying for the safety of the two girls.  Faith, Spike and apparently Robert could handle themselves and though Dawn and Kennedy especially had been well taught and trained; they lacked a certain strength and experience.

"Thanks Principal Wood," Dawn was still shaken by hers and Kennedy's all too close brush with death.  She knew though that she had to be strong.  It wasn't the first time she'd had an experience like this after all.  The only difference was, Buffy wasn't here this time and she knew she had to stop thinking of Faith as Buffy.

Believing the principal had the situation under control; Faith took Spike and Robert out in the hallway, telling Xander and Andrew to stay with Wood and the two girls.  "Spike, I need you and Robert to find wherever these things are hiding.  They'll probably be regrouping now that two of them are dead."

"Rethinking their strategies," Robert added to her theory.

"If Spike is right and they usually travel in packs of four, we have the advantage.  We need to use it to take these things out before they try to hurt anyone else."  She looked into the room, seeing Xander and Principal Wood helping Kennedy to her feet and a concerned Dawn standing behind them.  She realized she had something she needed to do while they looked for the demons.  "I'm going to go with Kennedy, just until the two of you find where they're hiding.  If one of those things attacks, I don't know if any of them can fight it off."

"We'll contact you as soon as we've found them."  Robert finished replacing his weapons in their concealed places beneath his black leather trench coat.

Seeing Kennedy, wounded, walking towards the door only with help from the two men underneath her arms, Faith became enraged.  "Hurry," was her final instruction as she walked back into the classroom, telling Wood she'd be going with them.

"Well where do we start?"  Robert put the ball in Spike's court.

"Same place where you went to find me," Spike suggested with a shrug.  It was as good of a place to start as any.

*******

            Faith was relieved.  The emergency room doctors had told her that Kennedy's injuries were minor and she would make a relatively quick full recovery.  Faith had spent a few minutes by her side.  Trying to be comforting wasn't exactly something she was great at, probably because so few people had been there to comfort her whenever she needed someone during her life.  With Kennedy now resting, the Slayer sat in the hallway outside her room in a rather uncomfortable chair.

            She glanced at her watch.  It had been over two hours since Robert and Spike had left.  Surely she should have heard from them by now.  One thing Faith hated was not knowing what was going on.  The Slayer didn't allow herself to consider the possibility that they had gotten themselves killed.  She knew they could manage themselves but still could not help but worry.

            "Mind if I sit down," Dawn's voice pulled Faith away from her thoughts.

            "Free country," the Slayer's answer was cold as she gestured to the chair beside hers.

            "Why are you here Faith?"  Dawn dispensed with any small talk and skipped straight to the point.  When Faith gave her a quizzical look, the young lady explained further.  "Why are you here at the hospital when you should be out there with looking for these things with Spike and Robert?"

            "Isn't this what B would be doing?"  Faith admitted the real reason.  Though she was worried about the possibility of the Talicar demons attacking the hospital, being there for and showing concern for Kennedy's wellbeing just seemed like what Buffy would be doing if she were here, before going out looking for the remaining attackers.

            "Probably," when Dawn made that admission, Faith thought the conversation was over.  "But you're not Buffy," Dawn pointed out the obvious before going into a further explanation.  "I think it's taken me a while to realize that to but you're not my sister."  Faith was unsure whether to take that as a compliment or an insult.  "You're more like my bad girl older cousin," Dawn's perky voice brought a smile to Faith's face.  "And you need to stop putting yourself in Buffy's shoes."

            Faith could not argue the fact that Dawn was right, to a degree.  How could she avoid putting herself in Buffy's shoes when she was leading Buffy's life?  "You're right Dawn," she conceded to avoid any further debate, knowing that Dawn wouldn't stop before Faith admitted defeat.  She stood, collecting her jacket another nearby chair.  "I'd better get going."

            "Don't get going too far," Spike's voice echoed down the narrow hospital corridor.  The vampire and Robert approached Faith and Dawn, confidence and purpose in their step.

            "You found them?"  Faith already knew the answer but wanted them to give her the information.

            "Taking a page from my book," Spike seemed to almost be pouting.  "You'd think they could come up with something original."

            Faith looked away from him and to Robert.  "Translation?"

            "The last two Talicar demons are hold up in an abandoned factory on the edge of town.  We can make it there in about ten minutes, if the stop lights cooperate."

            Faith nodded her agreement with the plan and turned towards Dawn.  "You up for it?"  For a reason she couldn't quite understand, Faith trusted Dawn to watch her back and it went along with Dawn's theory of stepping out of Buffy's shoes, knowing B would have already told her sister she was staying at the hospital.  Dawn did not answer, merely stood and followed the others out of the hospital, to Robert's waiting car.

*******

            From underneath the cover of an old loading dock, the group watched through a dirty window as the two remaining demon mulled about the factory.  It was obvious that they were not pleased by the disruption in their plans caused by the deaths of their two fellow demons.  Speaking in a primitive series of grunts, growls and gestures, the remaining Talicars were obviously debating how best to go about finishing their job without getting themselves killed.  Or, as Dawn pointed out, they could have been discussing the fastest way out of town.

            Either way, Faith was determined that they would not live long enough to put any more plans into motion.  The Slayer handed two hand axes to Dawn before drawing her own dagger.  Spike wielded Robert's pair of short swords while the demon hunter readied one of his Glock handguns and his long sword.  All were ready for the fight.

            "All right," Faith backed away from the window, prepared to lay down the plan.  "Dawn and I will go in through the opposite side," they had all seen the location of the other door from the car on the way in; it was immediately adjacent to the loading dock.  "Robert, Spike, you two go in here, get the demons distracted.  Dawn and I will take them from behind and we'll split them up.  Robert and I take one; Spike and Dawn take the other."  Once she was sure everyone was clear, Faith and Dawn began circling the building, making for the other entrance.

            "You ready for this?"  Robert placed a fresh magazine for pistol in his hand so he could easily reload his pistol when all the ammo from his current magazine was spent.

            Spike, growing very used to Robert's short swords, spun both around in a very showy maneuver as his face changed to its vampire form.  Though it had been alarming to him at first, seeing the vampire in this manner no longer bothered him.  Quite the contrary, it made him realize Spike was serious about what was about to happen.  "Let's get it done hunter."

            Working in unison, the two kicked in an access door, immediately drawing the attention of the two Talicar demons.  As they charged towards him and Spike, Robert opened fire, dividing his sixteen rounds between the two, dropping his magazine and reloading by the time they entered melee range, the demons not noticeably slowed by the hot bullets tearing through their bodies.

            Spike charged into battle, ducking under the swinging claws of one Talicar, darting to its ride and ramming both blades into the demon's side.  He pulled them out and, taking full advantage of his vampire speed, Spike pulled the blades from its sides, spinning them into a ready position and cutting the demon down its back.

            While Spike was engaged in battle, Robert also went to work.  Firing two more shots into the closest demon, he dropped to the floor.  Sliding on the old concrete, he went between the demon's legs, sprung to his feet and sliced with his sword from the bottom of the demon to the top, finally firing three more rounds into its head before the Talicar turned to face him.  The first blow from the demon knocked the gun from his hand; the second knocked him to the ground.

            Robert was quickly back on his feet.  He swung twice at the demon with his sword, each attack being dodged, before he spun around, jamming the blade into the creature's thigh.  He pulled the blade out as the demon kicked him in the chest, sending him into a support beam, a small pile of dust falling from the ceiling when he hit.

            On Spike's front, the demon had also gone on the offensive.  Turning around after the vampire had cut its back, the demon grabbed Spike by the shoulders and rammed its head into his.  Spike dropped backwards, momentarily stunned while the demon pressed on.  It successively slammed both of its fists into the vampire's stomach before grasping his hands together into one fist and hitting Spike on the top of the head, sending the vampire to his knees.

            The demon closed in on Spike, its claws nearing the vampire's throat but he was determined not to die this day.  Summoning his strength, Spike jammed a sword through each of the demon's hand and jumped into a spinning kick, striking it in the chest.  The vampire retrieved the swords and lunged forward, spinning madly and slashing with each spin, cutting the demon across its arms, legs, chest and stomach.

            Raising one of its arms to block Spike's quickly spinning blades, the Talicar grabbed one of his wrists and twisted the vampire's arm, sending him spinning to the floor.  Spike attempted to recover but was kicked in stomach and punched in the side of his head.  The demon stood above Spike, stamping its foot down on the vampire's ribs, preventing him from getting up.

            Robert kicked the demon in the knees as it charged him, causing its legs to buckle.  The demon hunter was back on his feet in seconds.  He stabbed at the Talicar with his sword, the creature parrying with his claws.  With Robert continuing his attack, the demon flipped backwards, kicking Robert in doing so, knocking him to the ground.  

The demon ran towards him, slamming an elbow across his face, preventing him from getting back up.  Holding him to the ground, the demon slammed a pair of claws through his shoulder.  With Robert effectively immobilized, the Talicar held its other pair of claws above his neck, tendrils shooting out from each, closing in on Robert's skin.

A hand grabbed the demon's clawed hand from behind, twisting it behind its back.  Faith smiled as the Talicar turned its head and looked at her.  Not wasting time with witty banter, she delivered a strong punch to its face and then pulled him away from Robert.  The Slayer drew her dagger as Robert struggled back to his feet, his strength already returning.

The Talicar slashed at Faith madly with its claws, the Slayer parrying each slash with her dagger, taking every opportunity she had to cut or stab the demon in its arms, slowing down the whirlwind claw attack.  As the attacks slowed, due to the quick wounds Faith inflicted on the demon, the Slayer attacked.  She spun at the demon, stabbing it multiple times in the upper leg, stomach and chest.

In a last ditch defense, the demon drug its claws down Faith's back, ripping her jacket and red sleeveless top.  She kicked the demon the chest.  "This was my favorite jacket!"  The Slayer landed a series of jabs, hooks, crosses and uppercuts on the demon's head before delivering the deathblow.  She jumped, spinning in mid-air, extending the dagger and slicing through the demon's neck, its head rolling to the ground.

Spike, using all the strength he had remaining, kept the Talicar's claws at a safe distance, safe until the tendrils emerged from their tips.  Spike struggled but the strength and the weight of the demon were too much for him to overcome.  Just as Spike was prepared to embrace the end, a hand axe blade sliced through the tendrils.

Dawn ran up from behind the demon, driving one axe into its side and the other into its neck.  She was able to pull them out by the time the creature had gotten off of Spike and was attack her.  Dawn jumped, dodged and ducked out of the way of the creature's swinging claws but could not work in an attack of her own, the Talicar demon moved too quickly.

"Hey ugly," Spike, now standing with his weapons at the ready yelled from behind the demon.  "Why waste your time with the soddin' appetizer when you can have the main course?"  The Talicar turned away from Dawn and slowly advanced on Spike.  "Yeah, come on," Spike continued to spin the swords.  "Come get a taste of what a real big bad can do."  Spike gave a ferocious vampire growl, charging forward.  The demon attacked with its claws; Spike knocked them out of the way with the swords, slicing off both of the demon's arms.  The vampire then jammed both blades into his stomach and again into his chest.

Spike backed down as the critically wounded demon began to slump to its knees.  From behind it, a hand axe flew through the air, embedding into the Talicar's skull.  The demonic light from its eyes faded as the demon fell, face first, to the ground.

"Not bad little bit," Spike walked closer to Dawn, his face returning to its human form as he pulled a cigarette from his coat and lit it.  "Not bad at all."

"Not too bad yourself Spike," Faith wore a smile on her face as she and Robert approached.  "You either Robert," she looked for the first time at the wound on his shoulder where the demon had rammed its claws through.  "You all right," the Slayer softly ran her hand across the wound, noticing it felt almost completely healed.

"Fine," he said, taking her hand in his and guiding it away from the wound.  "Not as bad as it looks."

"Guess not," Faith was slightly suspicious but let it go, for now.

"Well," Dawn looked around the factory, verifying there weren't anymore demons present.  "All demons are dead and all of us are still alive, I think the correct thing to do in this situation is part."  Faith smiled, putting her arm around Dawn as the four began walking out of the factory.

"I think the correct thing is for us to party and you to do homework," Faith corrected her, again sounding too much like Buffy for Dawns taste.  The sun set as the four left the factory, talking and joking amongst themselves.  From the shadows, a pair of eyes watched, not blinking or wavering.

In the darkness, as the door to the factory closed, the owner of the eyes laughed.  "You think you have won Slayer.  This was just beginning.  You have no idea what awaits you."


	6. Envoi

ENVOI 

            The Bronze was busier than one would expect for a school night.  Most of the teenage club goers were likely blowing off steam, getting over the stress from the first day of school and trying to unwind by listening to the slow, yet upbeat alternative band that was playing on stage.  Unwinding and relaxing was precisely what two of the occupants who were gathered around a pool table were there to do.

            Spike circled the table, pool cue in one hand and cigarette in the other, scanning for the perfect shot.  "So tell me," he spoke to Robert but concentrated on lining up the shot he had just found, taking a healthy drag off his cigarette.  "What was the Slayer like in prison?"  Spike sent the cue ball rolling into the number twelve ball, both bouncing off the sides of the table, missing the pocket by an inch, the vampire cursing under his breath.  "Was she a bad girl?"  Spike gave an almost practiced super villain smile with that comment.

            "Wouldn't you like to know," Robert was the model of serenity as he slowly worked his way around the table, already having chosen his shot.

            "Yes I would," Spike was annoyed, having tried for the better part of an hour to get Robert to give up some sort of juicy gossip about Faith.  Robert sunk his shot in the corner pocket, the cue ball rolling into a position that perfectly lined up another shot for the demon hunter.  "Bollucks."  Spike continued his attempt as Robert prepared another shot.  "Surely you've got a few stories."

            "What kind of stories are you looking for Spike?"  Robert's shot fell short of the side pocket but left the cue ball in a position where Spike did not have an easy shot.

            "You know," the vampire put out his cigarette and focused on the game, scanning the table for anything that could conceivably cut the three ball lead Robert now held over him.  "I've seen the way she looks at you."  This took Robert by surprise as he wasn't even aware of the way Faith looked at him.  "Surely you two must have used the handcuffs for something aside from the obvious or played a few games of guard and prisoner."  Not getting a reaction, Spike continued to press.  "There must have at least been a little through the bars action."  Spike missed another shot and Robert instantly went to lining up his.

            As he sank another ball, the demon hunter looked up at Spike and smiled.  "That's private Spike."

            "So you did," the vampire's grin grew larger.

            He circled the table, lining up a trick shot with one ball remaining.  "A gentleman never talks about his conquests Spike, you should know that."  He sent the cue ball, bouncing off the side of the table, into the final ball, sinking it in a corner pocket.  "Game."

            "You know, you should really give me a handicap for this," Spike felt the need to justify his defeat.

            "Because you suck?"  The two sat down at a nearby table, both drawing more than a few long looks from a group of scantily clad high school girls at a nearby table, talking and giggling amongst themselves.

            Spike took a long swig of his drink, some odd combination Robert had suggested he try.  "Because vampires get nervous playing games with pointed wooden objects.  One wrong slip and you'd be playing pool with a pile of dust.  Makes it hard to concentrate."

            "Well, next time we can play darts," Robert polished off his own drink.  He looked around the room, surveying the crowd, scanning it for a particular person and not seeing her.  "Didn't Faith say she was going to show?"

            "You know, she probably stopped to save the world on the way."

            "Probably so," in his looking for Faith, Robert noticed something interesting.  A man dressed in clothes that never escaped from the disco-era talking to a shy looking young girl at a table by herself.

            "So you're going to stay in town?"  Spike asked after taking the time to order another drink.

            "Yep, for a while at least." Robert stood as the man and girl he had been watching walked towards the front door.  He pointed them out to Spike who also noticed the peculiarity of it.  "Vampire," Robert pointed out the obvious.

            Spike grinned and shot out of his chair, following Robert to the door.  "You and I are going to have some fun."

*******

            Faith sat, silent and still, gazing out the window of her room, or more correctly, Buffy's room.  In the three months she had lived in it, she hadn't bothered to change a thing.  There were some things she could do without, everything seemed too light and frilly for her tastes but it never seemed right to do any of those things.

She had spent the last hour going through her closet, trying to find her most responsible looking outfit for the meeting with the school's psychologist tomorrow.  It was then she realized that she didn't have any responsible looking outfits and borrowed something from Dawn.  As she watched the city block, street lights and lights in windows burning like tiny flames, Faith heard Dawn's question echoing in her mind though not in the context it was originally intended.

"What am I doing here?"  She whispered, knowing no one else would hear it.  Dawn and Kennedy were working downstairs on their school assignments, Robert and Spike were at The Bronze.  She considered, how easy it would be, to pack a bag, take the car and leave.  She would be out of town, on the road to living her own life before anyone noticed she was gone.  Maybe that was the best thing to do.  Then she looked at the people, walking on the street.  It was the job of the Slayer to keep them safe.  This town needed the Slayer.

She heard footsteps on the floor and continued looking at the window.  She locked her eyes on the reflection of the doorway, seeing nothing in it as the footsteps stopped.  "When did you get here?"  She did not turn around before speaking, knowing precisely who it was.

"Just a few minutes ago," Angel's voice was soft as he stepped into Faith's room, hands held in the pockets of his black blazer.  "Dawn let me in," not that Faith needed or cared about an explanation for Angel's sudden appearance at her door.

"Come to check up on me?"  Faith still did not turn around.  "Make sure I haven't killed everyone yet."

Angel shook his head and sat down on the side of the bed closest to Faith.  "I'm not worried about that, no one is."  Faith smiled at that comment, glancing at Angel from the corner of her eye.  "I just wanted to see how you were adjusting to your new life."

Faith shrugged.  "Fine I guess, considering it isn't my life."  She turned around, looking at Angel who cocked his head, an unspoken request for an explanation.  "I've got Buffy's room, Buffy's house, Buffy's car, Buffy's job, Buffy's friends, Buffy's sister and Buffy's sacred calling."  Angel was beginning to see where she was coming from.  "This is Buffy's life Angel, I'm just filling in while she's gone."

"You're right Faith," those were not the words she had expected to hear from him.  "Buffy gave you her life but she also gave you something else at the same time.  A second chance at your own."  Faith smiled but lowered her head.  It might have been a second chance but it was a chance to lead Buffy's life, not her own.  Angel put his hand under her chin, raising her face and looked her in the eye.

"But this doesn't have to be her life, you can make it your own."  Both of them knew he couldn't stay long and Angel had said what he needed to say.  With Faith still in her thoughts, Angel began walking out of the bedroom but stopped and turned around when he reached the doorway.  "You up for it?"

Faith stood, looked at Angel and again looked at the window, crossing her arms in front of her.  "Yeah," she said with a genuine smile on her face.  "I'm up for it."

**EXECUTIVE PRODUCER**

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